Handles for hand-operated, long-handled tools such as, for example, shovels, rakes, hoes, spades, scoops, and forks come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes and are manufactured from a variety of materials. The majority of these long handles were traditionally constructed entirely from wood. While these wood handles provide many desirable characteristics, in some circumstances they have insufficient strength, may not be long lasting when exposed to some environmental conditions, and do not provide the most desirable shapes.
Many prior attempts have been made to overcome these shortcomings. One approach has been to replace the wood handle with a handle entirely formed of structural or reinforced plastic. While these plastic handles out perform wood by providing desirable shapes and environmental-resistance, in some circumstances they still have insufficient strength and in most circumstances are costly to manufacture.
Another approach to overcome these shortcomings has been to replace the wood handles with handles of composite materials. Composite handles typically include an inner core of one material surrounded by an outer shell of a different material. The outer shell is usually plastic. One composite handle, for example, includes a fiberglass tube surrounded by a coating of injected molded plastic. Because these composite handles must be sized to fit within the hands of the user, however, the diameter of the fiberglass tube has a practical upper limit. Thus, these composite handles either provide less than desirable strength or are too large to be comfortably grasped by some users. As a result, these composite handles may be suitable for some types of tools like medium to short handled tools receiving significant impact loads but insignificant bending loads such as, for example, axes, sledgehammers, and the like but they may not suitable for other types of tools like long-handled tools requiring significant bending leverage such as, for example, shovels and the like.
Thus, while these prior approaches to provide improved tool handles may provide improvements under some conditions, they still do not provide a handle which meets the desired characteristics of high strength, weather-resistance, desired shape, and relatively low manufacturing costs. Accordingly, there is still a need in the art for an improved long-handled handle.